Tupinamba

The Tupinambá were the leading Tupi-Guarani people of the Brazilian coast, where perhaps a hundred thousand lived in the sixteenth century. Their forebears had spread along the coast in the Tupi migrations of roughly 700 to 1200, displacing or absorbing older non-Tupi peoples.

They lived in stockaded villages, farmed manioc and sweet potato, and waged ritual war in which captured enemies were honorably killed and eaten. These customs inspired Montaigne's essay Of Cannibals.

After 1500 they first traded and raided alongside the Portuguese, but slaving and their French alliance in Guanabara drew them into war. The Tamoio confederation led by Cunhambebe was broken by the Jesuit-brokered peace of Iperoig, and the Portuguese destroyed the Guanabara and Cabo Frio villages in the later sixteenth century. Their Old Tupi language lived on as the Nheengatu lingua geral of the Amazon interior.